Up Sell Me!

This has been happening forever, but for some reason I am recently more "in-tune" to it.  This thing is "up selling".  It seems like it started in the fast food industry many years ago.  At the time you could get a jumbo Coke for 25 cents more.  A bargain at even twice the price, right?  Then it included french fry up sells.  For 59 more cents you could have a jumbo Coke AND jumbo fries with the sandwich.  Why not pack on the pounds with jumbo sized sides, right?

Somewhere along the line up selling began to take over nearly every purchasing opportunity known to man.  I bought a new car some years ago and for $990 more I could have the car rust proofed and the seats stain guarded.  SOLD!

I bought a laptop at a retail store a year or so ago and was asked a minimum of four times between selecting the model and checking out if I wanted to have any number of the offered "protection plans".  They varied in price and of course had varying degrees of protection.  I managed to decline this up sell, but wondered for months afterwards if I did the right thing.

Then when cell phones became the rage it was only a mere $5 more a month for unlimited texting. For $15 more a month you could make your phone Internet accessible.  Why not? You can completely ignore every other living person in your presence so you can "check your email" and check the stock quotes and make a reservation on your mobile phone.  I gladly plunged into the world of technology savvy consumers lock, stock and barrel.  The iPhone was the start of the end for me.

When you go to the car wash you can get the "PRIMO" car wash for $4 more than the "REGULAR" car wash.  It includes an under carriage wash, which every car must have, right?

A few weeks ago I had dinner with a friend at a restaurant where the server attempted to up sell us a half a dozen times.  Did we want bottled or that nasty tap water?  Tap.  Did we want to have a delicious appetizer?  No thank you.  Did we want to have the steak that was 6 ounces larger for only $5 more?  Maybe.  Would you like to change the order from two glasses of wine to a whole bottle of wine for only $12 more?  No thank you.  Would we like to have the lobster tail added to our steak dinners for only $9 more each?  No.  (I claimed to have a seafood allergy which is a sure way to quiet the seafood up sells.)  Would we be interested in a torte for dessert?  Of course!  Would we be interested in each having one.  There was a two for $3 more special.  But of course!

Then today at the optometrist I nearly had a violent reaction when the clerk attempted to up sell me an additional 10 boxes of contacts for only $150.  10 boxes?  I can't remember a year that I have ever used 10 boxes of contact lenses, let alone 10 additional boxes at any price.

In this quest to help people save more by buying in larger quantities there is an element of panic.  More doesn't necessarily mean better.  Or does it?  I am a mass consumer.  I love to consume.  I am a sucker for any new gadget.  So, I can't proclaim to be a minimalist, but I do wonder what these subtle hints of encouragement to consume more mean.

So, why is it so irritating to have someone up sell you....repeatedly in one transaction?  Aren't employees just doing what is asked by their employer?  Aren't they encouraged to generate as much revenue for a company as possible?  Yes, I suppose that is true.  At what cost, I ask? Or is this just guilt for saying, "No."?